Modifying a stylistic property of a vector-based path

• US 6,628,295 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2001
• Issued: 09/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Wilensky, Gregg D.
• Primary Examiner(s): BRIER, JEFFERY A
• Application Number:
  US09/775,166
• Publication Number:
  US 20020130908A1
• Time in Patent Office: 972 Days
• Field of Search: 345/594, 345/650-654, 345/661-665, 345/676-680, 345/863, 345/441-443, 345/473, 345/474, 345/475
• US Class Current: 345/594
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/00 2D [Two Dimensional] image generation

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for locally modifying a stylistic property of at least one path in an electronic document. All or a portion of an electronic document and at least one brush tool is displayed to a user. The electronic document has paths defined by parametric vector curves, and the brush tool is indicated by a cursor and having a region of influence. A user input selecting a brush tool and positioning the selected brush tool on the electronic document is received and a stylistic property of paths that pass within the region of influence of the selected brush tool is changed in response to a continuous user-controlled gesture of the brush tool. The stylistic property is a vector-based appearance property that varies along a path. Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for editing a digital movie is also described.

Claims

1. A computer program product, stored on a machine-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to:

display all or a portion of an electronic document and at least one brush tool to a user, the electronic document having paths defined by parametric vector curves, the brush tool being indicated by a cursor and having a region of influence;

receive a user input selecting a brush tool and positioning the selected brush tool on the electronic document; and

change a stylistic property of paths that pass within the region of influence of the selected brush tool in response to a continuous user-controlled gesture of the brush tool, the stylistic property being a vector-based appearance property that varies along a path.

2. The product of claim 1, wherein the region of influence is a changeable parameter of the brush tool.

3. The product of claim 2, wherein the size of the region of influence is changeable.

4. The product of claim 2, wherein the shape of the region of influence is changeable.

5. The product of claim 2, wherein the rotation of the region of influence is changeable.

6. The product of claim 2, wherein the strength of the region of influence is changeable.

7. The product of claim 1, wherein the parametric vector curves are curves in a two-dimensional space.

8. The product of claim 1, wherein the parametric vector curves are represented by polynomials.

9. The product of claim 1, wherein the parametric vector curves are Bezier curves.

10. The product of claim 1, wherein the stylistic property is changed by altering the vectors that represent the stylistic property.

11. The product of claim 1, wherein the change of the stylistic property is a localized change and only affect the parts of the paths that pass within the region of influence of the selected brush tool.

12. The product of claim 1, wherein the stylistic property of the path is changed by an amount that is proportional to the distance the selected brush tool is moved during the continuous user-controlled movement of the brush tool.

13. The product of claim 1, wherein the stylistic property is described by a polynomial and the components of the vectors associated with the stylistic property correspond to coefficients in the polynomial.

14. The product of claim 13, wherein the polynomial is a cubic polynomial.

15. The product of claim 13, wherein each polynomial coefficient has an associated stiffness coefficient.

16. The product of claim 1, wherein the stylistic property is a property unrelated to the shape of the path.

17. The product of claim 1, wherein the stylistic property is the width of the path.

18. The product of claim 1, wherein the stylistic property is the opacity of a stroke of the path.

19. The product of claim 1, wherein the stylistic property is a color property of a fill of the path.

20. The product of claim 19, wherein the color property is the luminosity of the fill of the path.

21. The product of claim 19, wherein the color property is the hue of the fill of the path.

22. The product of claim 19, wherein the color property is the saturation of the fill of the path.

23. The product of claim 1, wherein the stylistic property is instances of a pattern that are stamped along the path.

24. The product of claim 23, wherein changing a stylistic property comprises locally rotating one or more instances of the pattern.

25. The product of claim 23, wherein changing a stylistic property comprises locally translating one or more instances of the pattern.

26. The product of claim 23, wherein changing a stylistic property comprises locally scaling one or more instances of the pattern.

27. The product of claim 23, wherein changing a stylistic property comprises locally distorting one or more instances of the pattern.

28. The product of claim 1, wherein changing a stylistic property comprises changing a stylistic property only for the path in the electronic document that at any given moment passes closest to a center of the region of influence of the selected brush tool.

29. A computer-implemented method for locally modifying a stylistic property of at least one path in an electronic document, the method comprising:

displaying all or a portion of an electronic document and at least one brush tool to a user, the electronic document having paths defined by parametric vector curves, the brush tool being indicated by a cursor and having a region of influence;

receiving a user input selecting a brush tool and positioning the selected brush tool on the electronic document; and

changing a stylistic property of paths that pass within the region of influence of the selected brush tool in response to a continuous user-controlled gesture of the brush tool, the stylistic property being a vector-based appearance property that varies along a path.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the parametric vector curves are represented by polynomials.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein changing the stylistic property comprises altering the vectors that represent the stylistic property.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the stylistic property is the width of the path.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein the stylistic property is the opacity of a stroke of the path.

34. The method of claim 29, wherein the stylistic property is a color property of a fill of the path.

35. A computer-implemented method for locally modifying a stylistic property of at least one path in an electronic document, the method comprising:

displaying at least a part of the electronic document with the at least one path to a user, each path being defined by a parametric vector curve and having at least one stylistic property, the stylistic property being a vector-based appearance property that varies along the path;

receiving user inputs selecting a location in the electronic document, a region of influence around the location, and a stylistic property to be modified;

modifying locally the selected stylistic property of paths that lie within the region of influence by altering the vectors associated with the stylistic property.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising receiving a user input indicating the degree of localization and extent of the modification of the stylistic property.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein each path is delimited by two vertices.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising:

adding one or more vertices to divide the path into smaller path segments, each path segment being defined by a smaller parametric vector curve and having at least one vector-based stylistic property;

modifying locally the stylistic property of path segments within the region of influence by altering the vectors associated with the stylistic property.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein the step of locally modifying the selected stylistic property includes modifying the selected stylistic property based on an amplification factor associated with the path.

40. A computer program product, stored on a machine-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to:

display at least a part of the electronic document with the at least one path to a user, each path being defined by a parametric vector curve and having at least one stylistic property, the stylistic property being a vector-based appearance property that varies along the path;

receive user inputs selecting a location in the electronic document, a region of influence around the location, and a stylistic property to be modified;

modify locally the selected stylistic property of paths that lie within the region of influence by altering the vectors associated with the stylistic property.

41. The product of claim 40, further comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to receive a user input indicating the degree of localization and extent of the modification of the stylistic property.

42. The product of claim 40, wherein each path is delimited by two vertices.

43. The product of claim 42, further comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to:

add one or more vertices to divide the path into smaller path segments, each path segment being defined by a smaller parametric vector curve and having at least one vector-based stylistic property;

modify locally the stylistic property of path segments within the region of influence by altering the vectors associated with the stylistic property.

44. The product of claim 40, wherein the step of locally modifying the selected stylistic property includes modifying the selected stylistic property based on an amplification factor associated with the path.

45. A computer program product, stored on a machine-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to:

display all or a portion of an electronic document and at least one brush tool to a user, the electronic document having paths defined by polynomials, the brush tool being indicated by a cursor and having a region of influence;

receive a user input selecting a brush tool and positioning the selected brush tool on the electronic document; and

alter vectors that are associated with at least one path that passes within the region of influence of the selected brush tool in response to a user-controlled gesture of the brush tool, the vectors representing a width of the at least one path that varies along the at least one path.

46. A computer program product, stored on a machine-readable medium, comprising instructions operable to cause a computer to:

display all or a portion of an electronic document and at least one brush tool to a user, the electronic document having paths defined by parametric vector curves, the brush tool being indicated by a cursor and having a region of influence;

receive a user input selecting a brush tool and positioning the selected brush tool on the electronic document; and

change locally an appearance property for parts of the paths that pass within the region of influence of the selected brush tool in response to the distance that the brush tool is moved during a continuous user-controlled gesture, the appearance property being a vector-based property that is unrelated to the shape of a path and varies along the path.

47. The product of claim 46, wherein the appearance property is the width of the path.

48. The product of claim 46, wherein the appearance property is the opacity of a stroke of the path.

49. The product of claim 46, wherein the appearance property is a color property of a fill of the path.

50. A method for editing a digital movie, the digital movie comprising a first keyframe, a second keyframe, and intermediate frames, the method comprising:

displaying the first keyframe and at least one brush tool to a user, the first keyframe having paths defined by a parametric vector curves, the brush tool being indicated by a cursor and having a region of influence;

receiving a first user input selecting a brush tool and using the brush tool to change a stylistic property of paths in the first keyframe that pass within the region of influence of the selected brush tool, the stylistic property being a vector-based appearance property that varies along a path;

displaying the second keyframe and the selected brush tool to the user, the second keyframe having paths defined by parametric vector curves corresponding to the paths in the first keyframe;

receiving a second user input using the selected brush tool to change the stylistic property of paths in the second keyframe that pass within the region of influence of the selected brush tool; and

automatically interpolating a change of the stylistic property for paths in intermediate keyframes corresponding to the changed paths in the first and second keyframes.